Ho Chi Minh Cont’d

We got back to our hotel to avoid the scorching heat of the day. After cooling off in the air-conditioning of our room, Brad went to get some waters and beers from across the street at the convenience store.

By about 2 pm, we were brave enough to get back on the steamy streets and find lunch. I should mention that the sidewalks are not really for pedestrians. They are mainly used to park scooters on and to sit on (I.e. small restaurants have their little plastic chairs and tables outside). This makes Hanoi a very challenging walking city, but nonetheless, we made it work and walked/stumbled/traversed through the maze of streets and sidewalks to get some bahn mi.

The bahn mi (sandwiches with pork, pate, pickled carrots, and cilantro) were really good and substantial enough to keep us full until the evening.

After our late lunch, we tried to avoid napping but finally gave in and had a very brief 30 minute siesta.

Our group met for the first time at 6pm and everyone is from England! They all seem lovely and I imagine the 10 of us will get on just fine. We had a group meeting and then went for a group dinner. Now, we need to figure out packing as we leave for Halong Bay in the morning! I won’t have wifi while we are sleeping on the junk boat overnight, but I’ll post when we get back to Hanoi on Saturday!Read more